The EFI Conversion Debacle - An Overcomplicated, Finicky, Failure Prone Solution To A Simple Problem

Our friends at DD Speedshop recently went through hell installing and attempting to troubleshoot and repair a Holley Sniper EFI system on their Chevy Nomad Power Tour ride. Ultimately, they ended up pulling the entire system and replaced it with a carb.
Here is our perspective on the history of these systems, how they differ from OEM units, and specifically why the perceived need for these conversions evolved and the problems they are attempting to overcome.
The cause and possible solutions may surprise you.
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[ninjajunpei]

Luke over at Thunderhead289 would be someone to discuss this with. His "carb cheater" system he has come up with is a start in that direction. I think if you were to pose this to him, I think he might be able to create that work around you are pondering on. I think a collaboration between you two would be interesting.

[rlark]

Good to see that there is at least ONE old car YouTube channel that's not sponsored by Holley EFI!! 🙂

[JimLBon]

I think the 90’s/early 00’s was the pinnacle. The cars then were very well made and the management systems were not overly complicated. My current 97 F250 with 460 is a great truck. OBD1, one O2 sensor, doesn’t even have a MAF. If you’re a hot rodder it’s a bottleneck system but it’s simple, reliable and very easy to work with.

[zjw]

As a Honda mechanic, I haven't seen any issues with the factory EFI system until they switched to Direct Injection, and now we do lots of injectors and throttle body cleanings. They should have stopped at MPFI and been happy with it!

[AutoAuctionRebuilds]

I converted my 69 Chevelle SS 396 to Holley Sniper EFI for power tour last year. No issues at all. My 1940 Chevy is MPFI with no issue and 17mpg. The Edelbrock ProFlow 1 is 20+ years old on the Chevy with no issue.

[moparcasey]

I work at a hot rod shop and we are a Holley dealer, I’ve installed about 15 snipers and half were junk! Carburetor life forever!!

[RealGenX]

I’m the founder of FiTech “sold the company a few years ago” and you are correct! The systems were designed to work on Everything and with that they don’t really work well on anything.
As a tuner I can make it damn near perfect on almost any combination but it’s far from a bolt and go

[zjw]

I am not a master of carburetors since I'm 27 and didn't grow up with them, but after working on modern cars for a living, I want to daily drive cars from the 40s, 50s, and 60s because I'll only need basic hand tools to fix it!

[belindakt]

I have been a shop owner since the early 70s - watched all of this actually happen exactly as Tony has described . Couldn't have said it better!

[thejourney]

I was going to put dual throttle body efi on my car. Worried about potential problems and complexity. I decided to go with dual carbs instead and it works really great! No regrets. Been 2yrs now.

[fathaar]

Thanks for sharing Uncle Tony! It's great to hear your stories, ideas and thoughts. As a 22 year old lover of anything with pistons its very impactful to hear the input of a guy with your experience. Your channel is full of priceless information and insight that will help guys and gals like me to shape the future without forgetting about the past.

[jimcosklo]

Uncle Tony and Paul Shinn are my favorite car-tubers. I mainly just want a simple, reliable car that I can learn to fix, maintain, and keep running forever.

[pauldulworth]

Yet another masterclass from your favorite uncle and mine.

[fastcars]

I'm a wire nut and have been for most of my life. I started out at 8 years old helping my Mom build early PC boards by bending/placing/ and later soldering resistors as well as wire wrapping. My first car was a 74 Nova with points and a 2 barrel. I've been building drag cars and street cars for 25+ years. I mainly do wiring anymore but can do it all except transmissions, just never got into them. I've done a bunch of EFI systems over the years including Accel DFI, FAST XFI/Easy EFI 2.0, Big Stuff, AEM, Electromotive Tech 3R and most recently I have been doing a bunch of the Holley Terminator Stealth systems with no real issues. I've done 3 Holley Sniper systems and had issues with all 3 of them. I recently had one come in that was customer installed to troubleshoot. It was doing the exact thing the others were doing. I dove headfirst into it to figure it out. So far after a month of "fixing" it, no problems to report. I even messaged DD on IG and his video on it about what I did and also left a comment on one of your previous vids about it. The Sniper systems are a very low budget/cheaply made unit. The ECU is a part of the throttle body and subject to heat/ignition interference/etc.., even the wiring is Chinese made crap. After years of seeing and using different types of wire, that stuff is the worst! The Terminator Stealth does at least use TXL type wiring as well as the ECU being separate from the unit. In my opinion makes a world of difference. I've installed 15+ in the past few years with great success! The FAST Easy EFI 2.0 is a great setup. Moral of the story is that the Holley Sniper is total junk!!!! Holley just has not done anything to remedy it and just keeps pumping them out, bad on them for doing so! Unfortunately it's a bad apple that's spoiling the bunch. Don't judge them all based off of that particular model line. There are many out there that are great setups and many will be happy with them, just spend the extra and get a reliable setup!

[Daniel-fdwp]

I really appreciate how Uncle Tony doesn’t need a teller prompter. He speaks from knowledge. 👍

[lifelinefabllc]

I am an old school guy but in the off road world efi is so much better than even the best sorted carb. I have edelbrock proflo4 on my Bronco and it has been flawless for three years. Runs like a mid 90s factory car. Easy to tune and has spark control along with fueling tables. I love it.

[FrankF-vppt]

Having fun is keeping it simply Uncle Tony. I agree with you. I could get my old stuff running on pennies with duct tape and bailer wire. My friends dad tells a story about losing a rod bearing in a model T. 4 farm boys in the car, drained the oil in a jug, tipped the car on it's side and used a leather belt as a makeshift bearing to get home. And they did.

[nik]

When it comes to the carb/efi argument on reliability, I always think of the cars I had in the 70s. All were very reliable. My parents had a 1968 Ford station wagon with the 390 engine. Old school everything. We had that car for 250000 miles. I always remember how it started....a half a crank on the starter and it was running. A tad more in cold weather. Just so absolutely reliable. When my Father sold it to a painter, he came back as said he couldn't believe how well that car ran. Although it helped my Father was a mechanic, he was the type that just did the basic maintenance on his own cars.

[ndgendreamin]

As someone who grew up as a teenager in the late 80s, I was raised with the early EFI systems. Carbs always seemed like a magical ju-ju box that were becoming a dead technology and sure to end up in the scrap yard. Fast forward 35 years to today, and I'm become a huge fan of Quickfuel/Holley Carbs and have run them on all of my vintage vehicles. They do, generally speaking, run reliably and strong after they are dialed in properly.

[indicasativa]

I installed dozens of aftermarket EFI systems and have come to realize that most people who complain about them just don’t really understand how to tune them.